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Harris & Trump Hold Dueling Rallies In PA On Final Day Of Campaigning; Analysis: Musk's Misleading Election Claims On X Viewed More Than 2 Billion Times; Israeli Police Arrest Netanyahu Aide, Hostage Deal On Hold; Harris Speaks At First Of Five Campaign Stops In Battleground PA. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired November 04, 2024 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:31:21]
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: A shortcut to understanding exactly where, geographically, campaigns are focused on Election Day is to look at their schedule.
Vice President Harris has five stops in Pennsylvania and Trump also has two.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And of all the battlegrounds, the commonwealth --
(CROSSTALK)
KEILAR: The commonwealth is the biggest prize with 19 electoral votes. It's winner moves that much closer to that magic number of 270 electoral votes.
We have our panel with us, CNN senior political analyst, Gloria Borger, Alex Thompson, CNN political analyst and national political reporter -- a political reporter for Axios.
We are also joined by Larry Sabato, the director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.
All right, Gloria, five stops in Pennsylvania.
(CROSSTALK)
GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Is that all?
KEILAR: Yes. That's how you know somebody is not flying commercial. The idea of five stops anywhere is insane. Trump making two. Does it all come down to Pennsylvania? How sure are we of this?
BORGER: Yes, it is hugely important. I mean, you have a huge number of electoral votes, 19. And her easiest path and his easiest path, of course, is to win Pennsylvania. That is why they are both spending so much time there. The thing that is interesting to me about Harris is that, if you look
at the latest polling from Pennsylvania, she is winning with late deciders. That is important. There was one pole that had her winning with them by 53 to 45 percent.
So she wants to take advantage with that. She wants to go to Pennsylvania and say, later deciders, OK, come on in, the water is fine. And so that is what she is doing there.
And, you know, the overall polls show that they are tied. But you've got to find the votes where they are and that's what they are doing. They are all cherry picking them, right.
KEILAR: Larry, what is your view on this last day of campaigning for both Harris and Trump?
LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: I think Gloria put it well when she said it is the biggest packet of electoral votes of these seven swing states.
I do not think having the name "commonwealth" means anything. I live in the Commonwealth of Virginia, just to point that out.
(LAUGHTER)
SABATO: But let me give a contrary point. Not to argue with Gloria, but I'm going to give a contrary point. Nineteen electoral votes in Pennsylvania, but, hey, if you win North Carolina with 16 and Georgia with 16, that is 32. You could lose Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and you would still come out ahead by three electoral votes.
So there are loads of pathways to get to 270. We often focus too heavily on just one. You know, election nights are full of surprises usually.
KEILAR: Yes, if we have learned anything in recent years, it's that we cannot have any idea what is going to happen. We should not have that hubris.
I should wonder, Alex, as we are looking at where the candidates have been going, so many visits to North Carolina. A lot of visits for Trump. What is going on here?
ALEX THOMPSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: This is the biggest change from when Joe Biden was the candidate to now when Kamala Harris is the candidate.
The Trump campaign largely ignored North Carolina when Joe Biden was the candidate. But they're now spending money there and trying to make a path.
And the reason why is, as Larry just said, it is 16 electoral votes. That is just three less than Pennsylvania. If you can carry North Carolina and one other state, Kamala Harris could still lose Pennsylvania. The Trump campaign knows that. That's why they are basically ramping
up and they're trying to make up the difference between when they were ignoring it. That is why they are spending huge money.
[13:34:59]
And even if Kamala Harris does not win the state, they have forced the Trump campaign to spend lots of time and money they we're not planning on.
BORGER: You know, Harris took away some ad money, right, from North Carolina, which was a clue perhaps that they thought they were not doing so well. But now they've put money back into North Carolina.
So I think there is a sense in both campaigns that the race has tightened in that state.
SANCHEZ: Yes, I am curious, Alex, to get your thoughts on the op-ed that Nikki Haley put out over the weekend in the "Wall Street Journal." Obviously, a former presidential candidate and rival of Donald Trump, who said some pretty descriptive things about Trump on the campaign trail.
She writes, quote, "I don't agree with Mr. Trump 100 percent of the time but I do agree with him most of the time. And I disagree with Mrs. Harris -- Mrs. Harris nearly all the time. That makes this an easy call."
How much of appeal with this have to disaffected Republicans or Independents.
THOMPSON: I think it would have more appeal if she was actually out on the stump, or is she was with Trump speaking at Madison Square Garden. I'm not sure that "Wall Street Journal" op-ed really will make a difference to people in rural Pennsylvania. I could be wrong.
But the Nikki Haley-Donald Trump relationship is fascinating. Clearly it became estranged during the primary and they basically have been, are you going to call me first, are you going to call me first, during the entire time.
And that's why she's not on the trail. She basically said, I will go on the trail but he has to call me, and he did not want to call her.
KEILAR: Larry, what do you think? Is this a missed opportunity for Trump, or the fact that it would bring up all of the things Nikki Haley has said about Donald Trump in the final days of the election, is that something he wants to deal with?
What do you see the net here being?
SABATO: Well, the first thing is, it is way too late for Nikki Haley to have any impact. I think, even if she we're out there personally campaigning for Trump. It's election eve. And how many millions of people have already voted. Probably half of what the final result will be, maybe more than half. Second, for the most part, while voters are intelligent, they will not
be scouring the newspapers for advertisements or op-eds from Nikki Haley or anybody else at this point.
And third, isn't this just typical Trump? He can't bury any hatchet except in his opponent's back. That's what he wants with Nikki Haley.
He wants her to do what Mitt Romney did. Remember when Mitt Romney wanted to be secretary of state and he came crawling to Trump to get to be secretary of state. But Trump embarrassed him, embarrassed at the dinner they had, and then embarrassed him a little bit later by refusing his entreaties and not asking him to be secretary of state.
So this is the way Trump operates. Nikki Haley knows that better than anybody.
BORGER: I think she was trying to do cleanup in the "Wall Street Journal" because she came out and said, you are trying to appeal to the bro vote to much and you've got to stop doing that.
And that was not well-received by Donald Trump or the people around him. So I think she wrote this op-ed, you know, saying, you know, I really don't agree with him on the issues, et cetera.
And he is the one -- you're right. He is the one who did not want her on the campaign trail. He will never forgive her for what she said about him. She said some really bad things about him, like he was unhinged, for example, and too old to be president.
Those things don't go away. I mean, he forgave Governor Kemp because he really needs him. But he does not think he needs Nikki Haley much, obviously.
SANCHEZ: Surprising, though, that she spoke at the RNC alongside his other prominent rival in the primary --
BORGER: Yes.
SANCHEZ: -- Governor DeSantis of Florida.
Larry, I wanted to get your thoughts on something that Gloria just pointed out. And that's the idea that the campaign is trying to go after the bro vote. Especially young men are typically not the most active voters. These are lower propensity, lower information voters.
How big of a bet is that? And have you ever seen an election before where both campaigns are seemingly talking to two different camps? Because they are going for the bro vote while Harris is trying to court young women.
SABATO: Well, between the two, obviously, you would pick the women. They are 53 percent of the electorate, they're a majority in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. So the potential payoff there is much greater for Harris.
As far as the bro vote is concerned -- and I'm a little too old to be talking about bros -- but I just don't think it will payoff to the degree the Trump people think.
Not only do they have the low propensity to vote, but you have to divide them into two. There are bros who are college-educated. Now they are more likely to vote. But they probably would split their votes. They are not going to be overwhelmingly for Donald Trump.
It's the non-college young males who would be strongly for Donald Trump. And they are the toughest to get out.
KEILAR: Yes, so tough.
Larry Sabato, thank you so much.
Gloria Borger, Alex Thompson, thank you to you as well.
[13:40:00]
And still ahead, tech billionaire, Elon Musk, has posted a flurry of false and misleading claims about the election on his own platform. But new research shows just how much pickup those claims have received. We will have details, next.
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KEILAR: On the eve of Election Day -- here we are, it's amazing -- we are getting an in-depth analysis of how Elon Musk is using his money and his social media platform as a megaphone for misinformation.
KEILAR: This is analysis coming from the Center for Countering Digital Hate. It finds that the Musk's blizzard of misleading election claims, 87, have been viewed more than two billion times on his social media platform, X.
[13:45:05]
CNN correspondent, Hadas Gold, joins us now.
Hadas, what more are you finding in this new analysis? And what could it mean for the election?
HADAS GOLD, CNN MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Yes, guys, Elon Musk has not only given more than $118 million to help the Trump campaign, he has also pushed messaging on his platform, X, where I should remind you, Elon Musk has the most number of followers than anybody else.
Now we are getting some interesting numbers for how much this messaging on his own platform is actually worth. This analysis comes from the Center for Countering Digital Hate. They found, since Elon Musk endorsed Donald Trump in July, his political posts have amassed more than 17.1 billion views.
And they did the math on this, how much would the same number of views in political ads cost? They found it would be worth $24 million if somebody was to pay for that number of views on X.
They also looked at Elon Musk spreading misinformation. They counted 87 specific posts from Elon Musk that they said contained misinformation. And they found that they said were viewed more than two billion times.
And I'm sure, as we are speaking now, those views are just continuing to ratchet up and ratchet up.
I want to give you an example of one of these misleading posts. One of the things that Elon Musk has continued to push is that the Democrats are flying or moving immigrants around as a way to try to move the vote or to turn swing states blue. He said triple digit increases of illegals in swing states blue.
This is a tweet. This is what he said. "Triple digit increases of illegals in swing states over the past four years." He says, "Voter importation at an unprecedented scale."
I should say there is no evidence that Democrats are in some way purposely trying to move immigrants, whether illegal or not, around the country to try to change voting patterns.
But it just goes to show you how Elon Musk's misinformation can spread so widely on his own platform.
And I should note that, overall, things on X, since Elon Musk has bought the platform, have changed and shifted overall toward the right and toward misinformation.
The "Wall Street Journal" just recently had a new study where they just created a few X accounts and said that they we're interested in crafts, sports, cooking.
They said, within a short period of time, they we're blanketed with political content and much of it leaned towards Donald Trump and leaned toward questioning the integrity of this election -- guys?
SANCHEZ: Hadas Gold, an important analysis. Thank you so much for joining us.
Still ahead, Vice President Kamala Harris kicking off her final Michigan rally with a pledge to Arab-Americans in the community. Hear her message to them, next on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.
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[13:52:20]
SANCHEZ: One state where foreign affairs play an outsized role in this election is Michigan, with a very large Arab-American community.
In her closing argument Sunday for those voters, Kamala Harris pledge to do, quote, "everything in my power to end the war in Gaza."
KEILAR: But meantime, the war rages on with the hopes for a ceasefire or hostage deal on hold until apparently after the election here in the U.S.
And now new intrigue after the arrest of an aide to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
CNN's Matthew Chance is live for us from Jerusalem.
Matthew, why was that aid arrested?
MATHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, look, he is one of four people who have been arrested, but there is a gag order here in Israel, so the full details of this growing scandal are not yet in the public domain.
But look, it all focuses on a leak of classified information here in Israel that the authorities who are investigating say jeopardized the war aims of Israel. Specifically, we are talking about the aim of releasing the 101 Israeli hostages that are being held inside Gaza.
And it all boils down to the transfer of documents. They were sort of Hamas strategy documents, to a couple of European publications, newspapers.
In which it seems it was said in these documents, which are believed to have been tampered with or changed in some way, that Hamas was planning to transfer the hostages it in the Gaza Strip across the border with Egypt and elsewhere. It is something that Benjamin Netanyahu picked up in his speeches as well.
And at a time when there were intensive negotiations underway for a cease-fire agreement and for a hostage release, it was used by Netanyahu as a way of saying, look, Israeli troops cannot get out of the area.
It totally derailed hostage negotiations and no one was released. Now, of course, the prime minister's office has denied any wrongdoing. But the suspicion amongst many Israelis -- and this will be investigated -- is that the prime minister's office may have had something to do with it.
It sort of reiterates this idea or underlines this idea that Benjamin Netanyahu, who has, you know, been creating obstacles for his own political reasons, to a cease-fire agreement.
Again, the prime minister's office denies that but it is part of a much bigger brewing controversy here in Israel.
KEILAR: All right, Matthew Chance, thank you so much.
[13:55:00]
We do want to head now to Scranton, Pennsylvania, where Vice President Harris is speaking.
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: -- my posters and my flyers. And I put them all in my car and I drive to the local grocery stores.
And I pull out my ironing board and my duct tape and my posters and my flyers and I'd walked to the front of the grocery store outside, and I would stand up my ironing board.
Because you see my ironing board makes a really great standing desk.
(LAUGHTER)
HARRIS: I would use the duct tape to tape my posters on the outside of the thing. And I put my flyers on top of the ironing board and I would require people to talk to me as they walked in and out of the grocery store.
(LAUGHTER)
HARRIS: I will tell you, that is how I love to campaign. I don't do it as much anymore, obviously.
But what you are signing up to do today and what you have been doing, I mean, let's enjoy it. I know that you do. I can feel the mood in here because it is the best of who we are as a democracy.
And I think we kind of --
(CHEERING)
HARRIS: -- right?
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
HARRIS: That's what the campaign has been about. We are a people- driven campaign. We love the people. And we see in the face of a stranger, a neighbor. Right? And that is the spirit of what we are doing.
And over these last -- you know, this whole era of this other guy, you know? But what it has done with all that talk that has been about trying to have us point fingers at each other and divide each other, it makes people feel alone. It makes them feel like there is nobody standing with them.
So the way I have always been thinking about our campaign in these next 24 hours is, as we are getting out the vote, as we are canvassing, let's be intentional about building community, about building community, about coalitions.
Reminding people we all have so much more in common than what separates us. There is power in that.
(APPLAUSE)
HARRIS: There is power in that.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
HARRIS: And there's lasting power in that. Right?
It is about the win. And it is about more. It's about more. It's about strengthening our country and reminding each other we are all in this together. We rise and fall together.
And that is the strength of who we are and everyone here. That is the strength of Bob Casey. We have to get him back in the United States Senate.
(CHEERING)
HARRIS: That's the strength of Mayor Cognetti and all that she has been doing.
(CHEERING)
HARRIS: Right?
(CHEERING)
HARRIS: It is about leadership that is the kind of leadership that we want. Right? They are leaders, we are leaders, who understand that the measure of our strength is not based on who we beat down. It's based on who we lift up.
(CHEERING)
HARRIS: Right?
(APPLAUSE)
HARRIS: And so that is what we are going to do. So over these next 24 hours, I know everyone is here, including our youngest leaders. I see you over there. I know you are not ready to vote, because you look like you're about 8. But --
(LAUGHTER)
HARRIS: But you tell the adults in your life why it is important they vote, OK?
(LAUGHTER)
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
KAMALA: But over these next 24 hours, let's enjoy this moment to knock on a neighbors door and, in their face, even if we have not met them, know that we have a lot that we care about in common. And we are optimistic about the future of our country.
That we love our country and that that's what the fight is about. And about the promise of America. And the promise of America being represented by everybody who is here.
So I thank you all for the time you have taken out of your busy lives. There are a number of things each one of you could be doing right now.
But you are here and we are all here together under this one roof as a community of people who care and who are dedicated to the hard work that it requires.
You know, I like to say that you -- when you love something, you fight for it.
(CHEERING)
HARRIS: And that is what we are doing.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
HARRIS: And that is what we are doing.
(APPLAUSE)
HARRIS: We love our country and we are fighting for the best of who we are. And -- and I --
(SHOUTING)
(CHEERING)
HARRIS: Thank you. I love you.
(CHANTING)
HARRIS: Thank you.
Let's vote! Let's get out the vote! Let's get out the vote! Let's get out the vote! Let's get out the vote! Let's get out the vet! Let's get out the vote. Let's win!
(LAUGHTER)
(CHEERING)
[13:59:46]
HARRIS: All right. Let's get to work. Twenty-four hours to go. And I'm so -- I'm so grateful for everyone here.
I'll just -- I'll end with this point. You know, I have the -- I have the privilege, I have the blessing of being able to travel around our country. And I'm telling you guys, we are good. We're good. We're good.
(CHEERING)
